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L.M. Montgomery and Reading

June 21- 24, 2018

“I am simply a book drunkard. Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has for its devotee. I cannot withstand them.” –April 4, 1899 (from The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The P.E.I. years, 1899-1900)

“In spite of this proliferation of approaches to Montgomery, her fictions flourish in their original form. They continue to draw people from all over the world to the island of reading pleasure.” –Elizabeth Waterston, Magic Island: The Fictions of L.M. Montgomery

The 2018 conference invites research that considers "L.M. Montgomery and Reading" in all its forms and possibilities. The allusions in Montgomery’s novels and the richness of her own reading life raise a host of questions about the politics, history, culture, technologies, and practice of reading. In turn, fans and scholars explore what it means to read Montgomery as they continue to visit and revisit her novels and autobiographical work. Her enduring popularity continues to inspire translations and transformations that offer readers new ways to experience Montgomery’s texts.

This conference will also mark the 25th anniversary of the L.M. Montgomery Institute, providing an important opportunity to (re)read and reflect on the past and future of Montgomery scholarship and to explore how the presenters see themselves in a community of international, interdisciplinary, and interrelated readers.

Our Co-Chairs for LMMI’s L.M. Montgomery and Gender Conference 2018:

Emily Woster

Emily Woster is the current Visiting Scholar for the L.M. Montgomery Institute and an assistant professor in the department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She earned her Ph.D. in English Studies at Illinois State University. Emily’s work has focused primarily on the reading lives and textual worlds of L.M. Montgomery, including a chapter in L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valleys: The Ontario Years, 1911-1942. Her broader research interests straddle the worlds between women’s life writing, children’s literature, and English Studies. Emily is Managing Editor of a/b: Auto/Biography Studies.

Laura Robinson

Laura Robinson is the Dean of the School of Arts and Social Science, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland in Corner Brook Newfoundland, Canada where she is also a professor of English Literature, specializing in Canadian women’s writing, children’s literature, and feminist theory. Former Visiting Scholar at the L.M. Montgomery Institute, she has published many articles on Montgomery’s work (most recently in L.M. Montgomery and War and War Memories), in addition to articles on Canadian writers Margaret Atwood and Ann- Marie MacDonald as well as Americans Louisa May Alcott and Eleanor H. Porter. Her creative writing has been published by Women’s Studies, Frontiers, Entertext, Her Circle, torquere, and Wascana Review. She curated a travelling and virtual exhibit entitled, “The Canadian Home Front: L.M. Montgomery’s Reflections on the First World War”